


Bitter Pill

by Sheneya



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Abduction, F/F, Kidnapping, M/M, YouTube
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-24 17:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17104892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheneya/pseuds/Sheneya
Summary: Warnings aren't always effective.





	1. Chapter 1

No one was really surprised when they found out Gary had a small Youtube channel dedicated to his DnD, Fantasy and Sci-Fi collections. He wasn’t the most popular channel, but he had a few followers, even with his tendency to forget to take the lens cap off, or leave the sound too low, or even forget to turn the camera off entirely after he’d finished filming. Or perhaps he had the followers because of those tendencies. He always got so adorably flustered everytime it happened.

So Ava had just made sure he wasn’t giving away any Time Bureau secrets, after that they all just let him run with it.

Sometimes they even tuned in for a little while, Gary had an eye for finding the exclusive bargains, and he often found things they really liked, even if they couldn’t buy them.

Or, Sara thought as she looked up from the rather naughty text Ava had actually dared to send her, his few and far between personal vlogs. For a man who had a palatable love/hate relationship with technology, John’s one mobile phone had less than 10 phone numbers, the basic functions and the Youtube app, with a single subscription on it. She and Ray still teased him about it, after all, he’d practically begged the Tech Genius for help to re-download it after he’d found out about Gary’s channel.

Sara sent a text back to Ava while she grinned at the intent look John was currently giving his phone screen. They’d been away for a few weeks and, at least with Gary, he liked to start from where he left off.

She blinked when her phone buzzed again, Ava asking where her little birthday outfit was.

It buzzed again as soon as she looked at the message, this time it was an apology. Hank Heywood had barged into Ava’s office again apparently. Seriously, for a man who was all about manners and crap, he didn’t seem to have a whole lot himself. Sara no longer found herself surprised when Ava told her about her and Nate bonding over his dads…. Hankness.

She put her phone away and made her way over to where John was clearly changing to the next channel. She paused as he turned to her slightly confused.

“Sara, What’s this shipping business?”

She was pretty sure she knew what kind of shipping he was talking about, but decided to stare him down until he clarified it for her, just to be safe.

“Gary’s mentioned shipping you and Miss Sharpe… I heard young Mona saying it about Ray and Nora Darkh of all people, and I thing one of the interns mentioned it about me and Gary when we had our little adventures.”

She nodded in understanding, before replying. “It’s just the term a lot of people use when they like the idea of two or more people in a relationship. Why did you need to know?”

He seemed a tad jealous. “A few people have mentioned “Shipping” Gary with some unknown guy who has shown up in a few of his latest DnD group videos, apparently they agreed to film the occasional game and they have a new player. I haven’t seen the newest videos yet though.”

Yep, definitely jealous. “Well, Shipping doesn’t always mean those people are in a relationship, sometimes it’s just the watchers private fantasies. Why don’t you just see the last few videos for yourself?”

He seemed to be calmer at that thought and went back to start the next video. She noted that there were only two more videos before he’d caught up, so it probably wasn't that big of an issue.

Her own phone buzzed again. Damn, Hank had soured Ava’s playful mood, oh well. And Gary wasn’t replying to Ava’s pages… that was new.

It took almost 15 minutes before her phone buzzed again. Nate had called Ava, so had Mona. Gary had missed Taco Monday.

There was the sound of John tapping into the second last video.

Suddenly, the surrounding air felt tense.

She spun until her eyes stopped on where John was currently holding his phone far too tightly. He pulled one hand away and quickly ran his finger along the screen, speeding up the video. Looking for something.

She made to go towards him again.

Her phone rang.

“Hey, Sara, did Constantine by any chance abscond with one of my favourite agents again?” Ava sounded stressed out and worried. Sara was worried as well.

She made her way to Constantine’s side as fast as she could without running. He was halfway scrolled through the last video.

Just as she reached his side, his head seemed to snap backwards.

The sharp movement yanked the previously discrete set of headphones out of his phone.

“...As you can all see, dear Gary has left his camera on again, and actually fallen asleep.” John clearly and apparently painfully knew the man talking.

“That’s Des… That’s Desmond… It’s Neron.” John’s voice rang in one of Sara’s ears while Ava’s increasing panic echoed in the other.

Ava knew who Neron was, if not the entire story. John hadn’t wanted anyone to be caught unawares. But they’d warned Gary, told him to keep his eyes open.

Sara froze as the face of John’s former lover twisted slightly, seemed to become perforated almost as he, very deliberately tucked his arms under Gary’s slightly bent arms and legs and picked him up off the couch he’d fallen asleep on.

They could only watch in horror as what looked like some kind of dark portal opened up behind him. “... And tired little Time Agents like Gary here, really need their sleep… Don’t they Johnny Boy?”

His Message clearly and cruely delivered, all they could do is watch as he carried their Gary into the darkness. Sara barely had time to notice how unnaturally deep Gary’s sleep appeared to be as they disappeared and the portal closed behind them. 

He hadn’t even twitched in the Demon’s arms.

Suddenly she heard a crunching sound. Trying not to drop her own phone, she gently used her one free hand to pry the now cracked phone John’s fingers were almost digging into. It was just the screen luckily.

After all they might need the numbers he had now that that creature had taken Gary.

It was too fast.

Too soon.

John had only revealed Neron’s existence to them a month or so ago.

And they’d warned Gary.

John had hoped that him letting Gary go would have kept him safe. He’d told Sara that often enough.

But John had still wanted to be safe.

So they’d warned Gary.

But Neron had gotten him anyway.

“...John?”

“... We’ll find him… WE’LL FIND HIM!!!”

She let John’s strange determination wash over her as Ava’s voice came through the phone. “You’re damn right we will. Gary is MY agent, I have no intention of letting this go.”

The Waverider crew had often joked that Ava was as much Gary’s mother as Sara was theirs. For the first time Sara could actually feel the Mama Bear Wrath through her phone.

She took a deep, calming breath, before nodding to herself. “Gideon… open the shipwide comms…. ALRIGHT EVERYONE, THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING. ALL HANDS TO THE BRIDGE… WE HAVE A TIME AGENT TO SAVE.”

She lowered her voice again. “Captain Lance out.”

While they waited for the others, she turned to where John was frantically scrolling through the video’s comment section, looking for anything besides the currently stupid seeming comments about special effects and crap.

“Maybe we’ll get them both back, hey John.” She said under her breath, only half expecting him to hear.

“I wish, you and I both know it’ll be the greatest of all miracles if the universe decides to give me of all people that much.”

She didn’t reply to that.


	2. Ding

It had taken her team about five minutes to reach the Waverider’s bridge. On her phone, she could hear Ava paging Nate and Mona over her office’s PA system. She was a little surprised to hear her telling Mona to collect Nora Darkh on the way.

“Why Nora, Ava?”

“She says she interested in redeeming herself, if she can figure out any magical clues here in the office, it’ll let you and Constantine check Gary’s apartment thoroughly at the same time. I’m assuming the faster we get things checked, the more likely it’ll be that we won’t lose too much evidence.” Sara nodded, Ava’s idea was sound, Magic had energy, just like everything else, it would fade over time and they might lose vital clues.

“Right, call me back if you find something, I’ll get my team working now.” She hung up.

“Gideon, set a course for as close to Agent Green’s house as you can, then engage cloaking. John, you’ll take Zari and Charlie into the apartment, look for any and all evidence magical or otherwise, that might give us a clue as to how Neron got into Gary’s little DnD group.” She paused for breath. Mick, you and I will check the outside, When Constantine has finished in the apartment, he’ll join us and do a magic check there as well. She was interrupted by Gideon. “Captain, we are fully clocked and have arrived in the alleyway behind Agent Green’s flat.”

“Thank you Gideon. Meanwhile, Ray will run Gary’s last few youtube videos through visual and aural analysis with Gideon, and set up the system to sync with Gary’s computer as well, Zari or Charlie will bring it in, hopefully he won’t have deleted the unedited videos and we can get a clearer picture from them as well.”

Making sure all her teammates knew what they were doing, she gave one last nod. “Alright… How do we get into his apartment without being caught breaking in?”

John turned to her, if she didn’t know better she’d think the slightly pink tinge running across his face was a blush. “I… Have a key.”

The rest of the team stared at him for a bit.

“He...Said it would be useful in an emergency, and it clearly is, isn’t it?”

Sara nodded sharply at his words, now wasn’t the time. “Alright, let’s move everyone.”

With that, they all split to do their respective jobs.

John sighed as he walked off the ship with Gary’s key gripped far too tightly in one hand and Zari and Charlie almost climbing his back. Alright, they were both a few feet away, but he was too worried and it felt too closed in for him right now.

He steeled himself and unlocked the door without saying anything, they were just here to help anyway.

Charlie practically knocked him aside to get inside when she realized he’d hesitated, Zari gave his shoulder a commiserating pat before following her in.

He shook himself out of his own thoughts and followed them both. He needed to be in the centre of each room to cast the basic detection spell,he’d try the more in depth ones after that.

Meanwhile, Charlie was already flipping through Gary’s book and comic collections, trying to see if anything was hidden between covers, or even pages, while Zari checked under furniture, in drawers and under rugs, looking for anything that might resemble, runes, writing or even odd residues that John could cast magic tests on to see if they belonged to Neron/Desmond or any other supernatural force.

There it was, he’d found the centre of the lounge room. Sitting himself down he cast the spell quickly. And immediately regretted it as he hadn’t taken the time to prepare himself for the rush of information that assaulted his mind.

Then again, he didn’t think anyone would be able to control this flow. Desm… Neron had apparently made plans for John coming around to Gary’s house. But he hadn’t tried to erase the evidence. The living room was instead completely saturated with deliberately conflicting demonic magics and arcane energies.

John had only just started the spell and he could already feel the brutal throb that heralded the beginning of a magically induced migraine. And he had about four more rooms to go, not including outside.

This was gonna be tough. Still, he focused as best as he could, there was some magic that clearly didn’t belong to Neron. He had probably borrowed… or stolen random magical items and released their power, rather than using his own. He filed them away for later, they were still clues, and he still needed the information they provided, but only Neron’s magic would give them the best idea of where Gary might be right now.

Then there was the magic that seemed loosely related to Neron. John knew the demon had a few minions, but he had no idea how they or their magic could have gotten into Gary’s home. But it was clear they had, and they’d been there for a month at least he thought as he filed those findings away. He hoped that Ray’s analysis of Gary’s videos would give some more clues, maybe even pair the demons with their respective magic.

Finally, There it was, The magic that was clearly tied to Neron alone. It confused him though. Gary knew who Neron was, what he looked like, the tricks he might use. But all John could find was remnants of the Teleportation Spell Neron had used to take Gary away and some dangerous, Deep Sleep Magic. There were no signs of the Demon using glamour spells, mind-control magic or anything like it.

John pretended he wasn’t freaked out, hoped he hadn’t made a mistake somewhere. Had he not described Desmond well enough? Sara hadn’t realized who it was until he said something, but he’d described Him as best as he could. Right?

He’d had no pictures, he’d thrown them all out in an ill thought out and severely regretted moment of grief. Was he wrong? Or worse, had he somehow forgotten more of the face of a man he’d once professed to love than he’d first thought?

These dark thoughts followed him into the other rooms as he made the same sweeps there. Zari had found various signs, but only a couple were linked to Neron and Co. Charlie had also found Gary’s personal diary along with his computer. They agreed to look it over once they got back to the ship, hopefully it gave more clues.

Finally, after they both left for the ship, he went down and joined Sara and Rory for the last magical test outside.

That ended up revealing very little. Sara had ended up getting more information when she knocked on the doors to talk to Gary’s neighbours than her or Mick had gotten outside and John Had gotten with his magic test. Although they had basically just confirmed that Gary’s lovely “friend” had been joining his little get togethers for about a month.

John tried to ignore the building ache in his chest as they made their way back to the Waverider.

He was pulled out of his dark thoughts by Ray barreling towards him as he entered the Waverider.

“Constantine… I need your expertise. I think I saw something odd in the video, It might be supernatural, but I don’t know enough to be sure.” Constantine followed him over where Ray had set up his tablet to look over the public videos just as Sara’s phone rang.

He looked closely and nearly jumped when Ray pointed at the screen. “Right there… I’ll slow it down a bit.”

John half-listened to Sara’s side of the phone call while Ray did just that. Apparently Nora had found something in Gary’s office. He wanted to ask, but Ray had just finished slowing the video down.

Constantine watched it closely again, then nodded… he saw it.

Sara finished her conversation with Ava, it was clear she wanted to comfort the other woman, but they both needed to get the job done as well. It would be far better to find Gary.

“...Ray, John, what did you get?

“Palmer was right about something being off… and I might get a few exorcisms under my belt.” He pointed to the paused screen.

“Half of Gary’s DnD players… their eyes.”

Sara was shocked. “They’re possessed… Neron’s minions?”

John nodded. “Probably… and it’s also the most likely reason Gary didn’t contact someone for help. Look at his face.”

“He knows… he knows and he’s scared. Neron probably got into his group through one of them, then used the fact that they could hurt or even kill them to keep him in line.” John’s fist clenched a little as he listen to her analysis.

“Yeah, but now Neron has Gary entirely… I doubt he cares about what the lesser demons do to them.”

“You said you might get a few exorcisms.” For a former assassin, Sara still tended to hold out hope when it came to happy endings.

“And I really, REALLY hope I do… What did Nora get?” John hated to admit he wanted the happy ending Sara did, even though he doubted it would happen.

“She found traces of Dark magic on some of the gifts that were in Gary’s room.... There’s just one problem.”

“What...Sara what?”

Sara looked more upset than he expected her to. “It… All the presents were from Nate’s father. The gifts have been pretty basic congratulations on insert generic achievement here presents. There’s… nothing to indicate Hank knew they were magically tampered with. But the fact that it’s only his gifts… and that they come from many different stores means…”

John shook his head in despair. “It means Hank, whether he knows it or not, has a close association with Neron.”

Sara nodded. “Nate is already suspicious of his father, thinks he’s trying to divide the Time Bureau Agents and sink his claws in...But.”

Ray broke in that time. “If that were the case, he’d know by now that Gary wouldn’t move from Director Sharpe’s side for anyone.”

“Exactly.” The entire team agreed.

The team began running ideas around in their heads as they separated to different parts of the bridge. They ‘d form their own theories first, then bring them together.

At least that was the plan… Until John’s phone notifications dinged.

“... Gary’s Youtube channel just posted a video.”


	3. Seek and Find

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neron Issues a Challenge and John needs more info.

Constantine stared at his screen. He hadn’t been completely correct, the video hadn’t been uploaded, it had been sent to him.

It was Desm… Neron, sitting next to a clearly terrified Gary. The demon’s hand looked deceptively gentle on Gary’s forearm, but he… and Sara if the sharp intake of breath to his side was any indication, knew it was a false sense of kindness. Neron could, and would easily break it if Gary so much a twitched the wrong way.

“Hello Johnny…” Constantine winced as the oily sound of Neron’s voice emanating from Desmond’s mouth paused as he turned and pressed too sharp teeth against Gary’s ear to hiss a warning. “Now, now… Pet… Don’t whine.”

John didn’t say anything, it was a pre-recorded video, nothing he said would be heard anyway.

“Where was I… Ah, right, Hello Johnny. This video will be sent to you about two hours after I’ve recorded it. And, Luckily for you dear Gary here has reminded me of how FUN, playing with you pathetic humans is… so we’re going to play.”

Constantine had to shush the crew as they began trying theorize, he knew what it meant. It mean Gary had both managed to buy them some time, but he’d also made their jobs a lot more complicated. John just hoped the latter wouldn’t completely cancel out the former.

“I’m sure by now, Johnny boy’s obsessive viewing of Gary’s… show, noticed little old me and got your funny team looking at things… You may have noticed something… different about some of Gary’s… cute players. If not, well chop chop now, but I’ll give you one bit of knowledge. Now there’s something different about ALL of them.”

John paused the video. “They’re probably all possessed by something now, although how Neron got nearly a dozen demons to join this game… I honestly don’t know.”

He turned it back on just as Neron used Desmond’s hand to give Gary’s neck a twisted parody of a sensual massage. John could see his fingers pressing hard enough to leave terrible bruises. “If Gary’s here’s trust in you lot... especially Johnny, is warranted, and you save them all. You win the grand prize of both his and poor, stupid Desmond’s soul’s back. If you fail even one of them.” The entire Waverider crew jumped at Neron’s sudden surge of powerful, strangling fingers and the brutal, unwanted kisses he pushed against Gary’s mouth. “Well, I get to do whatever I want with my nice new soul don’t I?”

The Legends watched quietly, only the sound of Gary choking and gasping for air as Neron, with the other man’s blood covering his lips, sauntered over to the camera. “I will give you ONE little hint.” the demon said as he licked Gary’s blood from his mouth and swallowed it obscenely. “At least two of Gary’s players are in your little Time Bureau office… Maybe you’ve met them?... Or maybe not. Not all of them wanted to be on camera after all.”

The sudden darkness of the screen threw them, they hadn’t noticed his hand on the off button, too busy counting Gary’s breathes behind him.

Within seconds, Sara had dialed Ava’s number again while Ray went back to his computer set up. “Quick, give me Gary’s computer, we’ll plug it in and let algorithm find as much info as possible. I’ll get it to focus on faces first. Sooner we figure who most of these people are, the more likely it is we’ll find the rest through them… hopefully.”

John nodded, already running every exorcism spell he knew through his head. It wasn’t enough. “I’m going to read through the collection of books I’m carrying, try and find a few more rituals that might work when we need them.” Ray just gave him a distracted nod as John made his way out to his quarters, both their heads already going through data, Ray what Gideon had been collecting while they watched Neron’s challenge, John what books he needed to look through first.

He’d been skimming through the books for an hour when Sara, phone still up at her ear buzzed at his doorway. “Ava thinks they may have found one of Gary’s Agency DnD players. Nate and Mona are trying to keep a secretive eye on her until they find the other one.”

“Good idea from Director Sharpe as usual, if we exorcise that one right away, the other might go to ground. Also, tell the two of them to watch how the woman reacts to nearby religious objects, actually, watch how everyone reacts to nearby religious objects, Not only will that tell us what type… or types of demons we’re looking at, but it’ll give the best idea of which exorcisms to use.”

“Did you hear all that Ava?”

John barely heard Ava’s voice through the phone, but it was clear she’d heard him. “While they’re trying to find the other demon in the Time Bureau, I need a favour from you.”

“..What do you need.”

“I don’t have all the books I need for an endeavour this big, and I can’t risk not knowing an exorcism that might work if others fail.”

“All right?”

He tapped on his quarter’s screen, punching in some coordinates. “I need you to drop me at the Mill House right here. It has every book I could possibly need, but I’ll need time to find them all.”

Sara nodded. “Gideon?”

“Coordinates are already set and ready to go Captain. Although Mister Constantine does seem a little nervous.” John tried not to sigh at Gideon’s not inaccurate statement.

“There are two people that live with me over there, but I kind of dropped off the radar on them… Chas, is used to me he’ll probably just grumble at me a bit… Zed… Well, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Sara decided to let it go. “Alright. Gideon, set a course.”

She also decided to ignore the “Flying Easel’s hurt.” that was muttered under Constantine’s breath as the Waverider’s engines started. It was clearly something she hadn’t been meant to hear.


End file.
